Collecting salary numbers from the past year, Forbes has released the top ten paid actresses on television— and it’s pretty diverse.
Composed of two Shondaland talents, Kerry Washington nabbed the No. 7 spot for her role on ABC’s Scandal, which reportedly brought in $11 million for her over the past year. Grey’s Anatomy lead Ellen Pompeo brought in $13 million for her Shonda Rhimes show, placing her at No. 3.
Other actresses of color on the list include Mindy Kaling (No. 3 at $13 million), Priyanka Chopra (No. 8 at $10 million) and Sofia Vergara who blew the women and men out of the water in the No.1 place with a whopping $41.5 million for her portrayal of Gloria Delgado-Pritchett on ABC’s Modern Family.
“I just want to say that sometimes, we have been told a false narrative as women, often, that there is only room for one of us in the room,” Washington recently said at the 6th Annual Women Making History Award. She has often credited Rhimes for lifting the standard of what she expects and deserves as a Hollywood actress.
“And it’s part of how they keep us small. Part of the culture of Shondaland is to shatter that illusion and I learned that on day one when I met Shonda [Rhimes]. And that culture has extended to all of the women in that land. We don’t hold back from our sisters.”
Hide Transcript
[BLANK_AUDIO] So yesterday we had the entire Chanda Linn family. All of the actors from all three shows, although there's going to be a forth. All of the actors together looking beautiful and fabulous and well-dressed. And color-coordinated, and we were all in a room to do this massive portrait for Shonda and her land. Shonda Rhimes far exceeds any prayer I could have come up with for the best boss ever. She is a friend She's an inspiration. She's a role model. She's a leader. She is a, she's really such an example for me as a woman, as a person of color, as a mom, as an employer, as an artist, as a human being I think the thing that I love most about playing Olivia Pope is that I'm constantly learning more about her. You know I come from film, so I'm used to playing a character for three or four months. Or even in the theater where you may play a character for a year, but it's that same moment in their life. Over and over again. And the thing about doing television is that you get to discover more and more about your character because you live with them but you live with them in all different situations and scenarios over four years now. So I just love her, I love Her imperfections, I love her fabulousness, I love how strong and smart she is, I love how vulnerable and imperfect she is. She's a real gift to me in my life. I have to say I think my favorite line on the show is not a line that I got to say. I think my favorite line Line on this show is probably I'm Quinn ****. Which is probably a [UNKNOWN] line. So that's probably my favorite. But I've had some great ones. It's handled is so classic that's probably the one people on the street say to me the most. I kind of live the [UNKNOWN] Speeches. You know when she pokes someone, those moments are really fun because I think as a woman to be able to have that sense of authority, and give somebody a good read is really fun.
